Mariano Rivera

Mariano Rivera, Mariano Rivera made the final Yankee Stadium appearance of his Hall of Fame career in the Bombers’ home finale, but it wasn’t the four outs he recorded that will be remembered for eternity.

Instead, it was the sight of Rivera crying uncontrollably on the mound while embracing his two Core Four teammates, who had been sent out by Joe Girardi with two outs in the ninth to make the pitching change that signaled the end of an era in the Bronx. “They both came to get me out and I was thankful they came out,” Rivera said. “I needed them there and they were there.”

Despite the fact that the Yankees’ 4-0 loss to the Rays marked the first meaningless final home game of the season for the club since 1993, the sellout crowd of 48,675 will have plenty to remember from the night.

From Rivera’s Bleacher Creature roll call to the endless chants of “Ma-ri-a-no!” all game long, it was clear that the closer was going to be the centerpiece of an otherwise mundane evening.

Even then, nobody had any idea of what was yet to come. With Tampa Bay leading by four runs after scoring twice in the eighth, Girardi brought in Rivera with one out and runners at first and second.

Rivera jogged in from the bullpen as a recording of Bob Sheppard announced his entrance. The crowd stood and applauded – as did the Rays, who emerged from their dugout to give the closer a standing ovation of their own.

Mariano Rivera: Mariano Rivera’s Future

Mariano Rivera: Mariano Rivera’s Future, One of the best things about spring training is the way that it is a time of hope for every team.

Even fans of the Astros, Mets and Orioles are free to spend a little time dreaming about how things could break their way just often enough to make the summer something other than the death march that most people are predicting for their teams. Everyone’s record is spotless, every player is claiming to be in the best shape of their lives and all things are possible.

Mariano Rivera has been the reason for much hopefulness around the Yankees for his entire career, but he chose his arrival to camp this year for a moment that doesn’t quite fit with the spring training ethos of eternal optimism.

Rivera came to Tampa sounding like a man who is ready to ride off into the sunset at the end of the 2012 season.

Rivera answered questions about his future by saying that he’s made an “irrevocable” decision about whether or not to sign another contract with the Yankees after this season. He said it is hard to be away from his family and that he has no desire to hang around should his skills start to deteriorate.

“I don’t want to be seen like that,” Rivera said. “It is important for me to leave the game on top if God allows me to do that, just finish on top, knowing I did what I was called to do.”

Those skills haven’t shown any deterioration at this point, so we know that’s not driving Rivera’s thought process. He’s been as good, if not better, over the last few years as he was 10 or 12 years ago and the annual attempts to pinpoint the end of the Rivera mystique always go up in smoke when the cutter resumes slashing its humiliating swath through American League bats.

Everything else he said points to the time when “Enter Sandman” will go back to being just a Metallica song and the ninth inning will become the kind of guessing game that it is in so many other ballparks around the major leagues. A decision to return to baseball when you don’t have a contract for the next season hardly seems like something you’d describe as irrevocable, after all.

Many athletes have hinted at retirement or even gone through the motions of retiring before winding up back in uniform. There have been no hints to this point that Rivera has the Brett Favre gene that demands people fawn over him, though, and he’s never really been one to make statements that he didn’t back up with actions.

Viewing his words through that prism makes it hard to draw any conclusion other than that this is the start of Rivera’s farewell tour. While we all knew that this day would come and that it was coming sooner rather than later at this point in Rivera’s career, it doesn’t make it any easier to contemplate a baseball world without Rivera in it.